Electric cars may not be the vehicle du jour of U.S. roads just yet, but that hasn't stopped their respective filling stations from spreading out like a negatively charged virus.

The latest region is Massachusetts (home!), where 142 such "pumps" will be installed at 25 sites statewide. Most of the chest-high boxes will be run by the ChargePoint Network, which is partially funded by the Department of Energy and has already deployed the stations to other hotspot areas like New York City and its California base of operations.

Cost to you, the Massachusetts citizenry? Not much. The $5,500 per unit cost is pretty much funded completely by ChargePoint. The rest? Easy: About $280,000 from a pollution settlement case obtained by Attorney General Martha Coakley in 2007. She may not know how to run a campaign, but when it comes to funding alternative energy sources with the spoils of war? Master class. [The Boston Globe]